Rich Hoyer on his just-completed tour, Oaxaca at Christmastime
After not leading this tour for several years, it was great to be back in Oaxaca during this festive time. In many ways, it was like I never left. The delightful cultural goings-on, such as the Noche de Rábanos, the final night of the posadas, several ruins and markets, and the fabulous food in some of the city’s finest restaurants were memorable as always.
We had very full mornings and even some afternoons in the field where the birding was great fun. In the pine-oak forests we came across a very large and cooperative group of Dwarf Jays with a flock of Steller’s Jays and Gray-barred Wrens, but only after having frustratingly brief views of two shy pairs, but the ultra-cooperative Northern Pygmy-Owl was for some the day’s highlight. We returned to this forest habitat three other times, getting great views of Red Warblers, finding a fruiting tree full of six species of thrushes (including the elusive Aztec), and enjoying a picnic dinner that was followed by an attempt to see and hear owls. It didn’t seem too promising at first but ended with a fabulous finale of a handsome Fulvous Owl perched for a couple of minutes right over the road. Oaxaca Valley and foothill gems were Slaty Vireo, Oaxaca Sparrow, and Bridled Sparrow.
Our time on the moist northern slope and lowlands in the Valle Nacional and Tuxtepec region doubled our bird list. A cooperative Pale-billed Woodpecker, Yellow-tailed Oriole, and multiple kingfisher species were notable, but a true joy was watching a White-bellied Emerald bathing in the dew atop some giant elephant ear taro leaves in a swale below the road. We also saw quite a few lovely butterflies in this area, thanks to the tropical climate.
We ended the tour with a bunch of new species in the more desert-like habitats of the Oaxaca Valley, including three new and fabulous wrens – Rufous-naped, Boucard’s, and Happy, and finished our final day with a stop at the awesome hugeness of the ancient baldcypress of El Tule.
The always photogenic Bridled Sparrow never fails to elicit surprise from those who expect sparrows to be dull
Our picnic dinner in the forest ended with Mexican Whip-poor-wills, followed by a fabulous Fulvous Owl
A Northern Pygmy-Owl tooted above us and ignored the Olive Warblers and Hermit Warblers that came to mob it
The carved radish displays around the town square for the Noche de Rábanos occurs every December 23, and it was a highlight for many on the tour
This Glorious Blue-Skipper was the most colorful and most cooperative of the butterflies we saw near Tuxtepec